The Like Club
by Rad but sad
Summary: *AU and OOC**Rated T for use of profanity* Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase have been enemies from the moment they met. Both are scheduled for a weekend detention on Saturday. But unfortunately, a huge blizzard hits town, trapping both of them inside the school. Can they learn to get along and make it through the freezing temperatures?
1. Monday Morning

"Honey, Jason's here."

"I'll be down in a sec," I called back.

I snatched the straps of my backpack off my bed post and raced downstairs. My mom was waiting in the kitchen with a green apple in her hand. She pecked my cheek even though I've told her countless times not to.

"Have fun," she hands me the apple.

"As if," I reply as I close the front door. Jason's car was waiting by the curb. The back door facing me popped open. Nico waved me in. I made one last glance at my house as I hopped in next to Nico Di Angelo. On the other side of him was Thalia Grace. These were my best friends(Zoe is also, but she doesn't ride with us), no introduction needed.

"Did you bring your notes?" Nico asked me expectantly. I roll my eyes and ruffle through my backpack.

I pull out a blue binder and put in his lap, "You're so lazy sometimes."

"You know you love me," He starts copying down what's on the sheets as the car rolls forwards. I take a bite of my apple.

"You know Nico, when you're a senior you're gonna have to be a bit more responsible," Piper called from the passenger seat.

"You're not my mom, Pipes," Nico responded.

"She's right. You can't keep stealing my notes," I said as I took another chunk from my apple.

"You're such a hypocrite, Percy. I see you copying off of Annabeth all the time," Thalia joined.

"Thank you," Nico nodded at Thalia.

"No I don't," I denied.

Thalia scoffed, "Yeah you do. Then how did you get a 97 on the math quiz last Friday?"

"Just because you're jealous of my skills, doesn't mean that you can make up false accusations, Thals," I grinned.

"Yeah, okay," she said sarcastically.

"Isn't Annabeth that one chick who's got a crush on you?" Jason asked. Nico and Thalia burst in laughter. Piper smirked.

"Ew, no. You're thinking of Hannah, not Annabeth," I shuddered at the thought.

Apparently Jason caught that from the rear view mirror. "What's so bad about Annabeth?"

"Well let's start with the fact that I hate her. She's a fricking smart aleck all the time. She's just really annoying."

"Is she cute?"

"I'm sitting right here, just in case you didn't know,"Piper stated to Jason.

"No, not like that. Percy, you're just crushing on her."

"No she's not cute and I'm pretty sure I'm not crushing on that she-devil."

"Nico, is she cute?" Jason asked.

Nico stopped writing for a second. "Sure, I guess."

I looked at Nico in disgust.

"I just said she's cute. Unlike you, I'm not into her," Nico went back to jotting notes.

"I hate you guys," I shook my head.

"Love you, too," Piper replied.

The car rolled to a stop in the school parking lot. 'Clearwater Pines Highschool' was written in teal block letters above the front doors. White piles of snow were mounted on the top of the letters and pretty much any other surface. The school actually looked kind of nice with the snow and ice reflecting the sun's glow.

Thalia sighed. "Another week."

"Tell me about it," Nico and I groaned.

"It gets better. Trust me," Jason told us.

"I certainly hope so," I muttered as we exited the warmth of Jason's BMW. I shivered at the cold kiss of winter on my bare skin. Nico, Thalia and I ran inside to escape the chill while Jason found a place to park his car. I was extremely relieved when I found out that the school actually tried to keep the students warm today. It's usually cold inside no matter what season. Every. Single. Day. We headed straight for our lockers since the bell was going to ring in a few minutes anyway.

We all had the same home room. English, with Mrs. Foral. Speaking of, I'm gonna be late again. I hefted my literature textbook and broke into a steady jog to her class. Nico and Thalia had already went ahead. The bell rang. I stopped running. It's not worth it if I'm already late.

Mrs. Foral was doing roll call as I stepped in the room.

"Present," I said as I took my assigned seat right next to "miss know-it-all" Chase.

"Ah, Mr. Jackson. I was hoping you'd join us. Preferably on time, though. That's something you can improve on this semester," she told me as she scribbled something down on a Post-It note.

"The pleasure is all yours," I responded. A few giggles broke out.

"Okay, today we're going to begin working on a two part project," Mrs. Foral announced. "This is a summative, so it will be worth 100 points. This project will really change your grade. If you flunk it, your grade will lower about two letter grades, meaning that if you currently have an A in this class, your grade will lower to a C. And vice versa. So please try not to fail. One more thing, since winter break is coming up, if you do really bad on the project, your grade will stay that way all the way until late January. Are we clear on this?"

We gave her a few nods and mumbles.

"Good. Now on the project itself. The first part of the project is that you're going to create your own Greek god or goddess. We've gone over Greek mythology for about two months now so this shouldn't be too much of a challenge. You have to come up with a name for him or her, attributes, any special abilities, relationship with the other Olympians and a backstory. I'm going to pass out a sheet that has all the required information.

"This is going to be a group project. You're going to be in groups of two. This means that if you do really bad, then you not only lower your own grade, but you lower your partners grade as well. And vice versa. Now, before you get too excited, I must tell you that I'm assigning your groups."

A series of groans and protests erupted.

"Guys, suck it up. We're not in kindergarten anymore. I will explain the second part of the project in a few days, after everyone is finished with the creation of their Olympians. Now I'm going to call out groups. Listen closely. When I call out your group you can move desks or sit on the floor and work together. BOTH PARTNERS HAVE TO PARTICIPATE. I will lower your grade individually if I see that you're not participating. Okay here we go. Tommy and Brian. Hannah and Lexi...Connor and Courtney-"

"Aw, Mrs. Foral, can you put me with Travis?" Connor whined. The Stoll brothers were known for doing everything together. It was only fair that they should be partnered together.

Mrs. Foral paused, looking at the both of them. "Fine, but I better see an excellent product from you two."

"Yes! You're the best!"

"I don't need the flattery, Mr. Stoll."

The class laughed.

"Moving on. Chloe and Jessica. Percy and Annabeth-"

My head shot up. "No no no. Can you change mine, too, Mrs. Foral?"

"Why?"

"Because I don't wanna be paired up with her."

"Mr. Jackson, I'm not going to switch you just because you don't like your partner. In fact, you're going to stay that way since you said that."

The class 'ooooohed' as if Mrs. Foral insulted me.

"But that's not fair. You let Connor and Travis pair up, why can't you-"

"That's enough Mr. Jackson."

"Wow. You're nice," I said sarcastically.

"One more word and you'll be on your way to the principals office. Might I add, you'll be on your way to the principals office for the eighth time this quarter."

The class got quiet. I could feel my face slowly turning red. That was over kill. She didn't have to add that last part. She continued to list off names for our project.

"You guys can move desks together or sit on the floor. Nico can you pass out the information sheets for me? And Percy, I'm going to need a word with you outside," Mrs. Foral locked eyes with me.

"But it's cold outside," I responded. I got a few weak laughs from the class.

Mrs. Foral rolled her eyes. "Just follow me."

She walked out the room. I glanced at Thalia. She just shrugged. I followed her out the door and into the empty hallway.

"Look, the reason that I didn't switch you was because I wasn't allowed to. The guidance counselor and the principal and a bunch of other teachers decided that you and Annabeth are a major distraction to your peers. You argue way too much and the staff decided to fix this by forcing you two to work together.

"Personally I think that they should have taken the opposite approach and separate you two, but the main body rejected my suggestion. Sorry, but it's not in my hands anymore. You're going to have to deal with it," she explained. I frowned. A million thoughts were racing through my mind. I could tell that she noticed this.

"Can I go inside now?" I simply asked. She allowed and we made our way back into the class room. I saw Annabeth sitting patiently at her desk with the information sheet. I dragged my desk so we were sitting directly across from each other.

"So..." I began awkwardly. "Any ideas?"

"Get some paper," she commanded.

"Can I get a "please get some paper"?" I asked with a smirk.

"No. Just get some paper and quit wasting time," she responded, her face showing a teensy bit of annoyance.

"We'll then I guess I'm not going to get any paper."

She sighed. "Fine. Can you please get some paper? Happy?"

"Very. But I didn't bring any paper with me."

She rolled her eyes and angrily tore out a piece of paper from a stray notebook on the ground.

"Whoa, calm down," I chuckled.

"Percy," she said through gritted teeth. "Shut up."

"But we have to work on this together."

"Then shut up and just let me get this done myself."

"I don't think you understand the meaning of the word 'together'."

"We both know it's going to be much more effective if I work on this alone. Let me just get this done quick, then we never have to speak again. Okay?"

"But if Foral sees me not participating, she'll lower my grade."

"Suck it up."

"No, this is a summative, remember?"

"I already know. And since when did you care about your grades."

"I don't know. Like a week ago?"

She rolled her eyes.

"Can I help just a little bit?" I asked hopefully.

"Fine. Just don't interrupt me, annoy me or get in the way. Got it?"

"Yes sir- ma'am."

"You're being annoying already."

"Sorry," I cleared my throat and straightened in my seat, trying to look as professional as possible. Annabeth started sketching something on the paper.

"What are you drawing?" I asked. "Is that what our Greek god is gonna look like? Why is his nose so big? Or is that a she?"

The bell rang.

"Have a good day," Mrs. Foral waved us off. The class stampeded out and into the loud halls. I weaved through the crowd to my locker which was conveniently right next to Nico's. To the right of Nico's locker was Thalia's. They were both already at their lockers when I got there.

"I can't believe Foral put me with pill breath," I told them.

Nico chuckled. "It sucks to suck."

"You really need to stop calling her that," Thalia intervened.

"What? Pill breath?"

"Yeah."

"But it's true, though. Her breath always smells like pills or prescription drugs or something like that. Have you ever noticed? I wonder what it is."

"Well yeah, but it doesn't mean you have the right to make fun of her like that."

"It's just a joke, Thals. Lighten up."

"For you it is."

"How come all of a sudden you're being defensive about her? Why are you on her side?"

"Percy, this isn't about picking sides. This about you being a jerk. If you can't see that then... then I don't even know what to say to you."

She slammed her locker and stormed off to her next class. As I watched her disappear, I turned to Nico.

"What the hell was that about?" I asked him.

He had an amused grin on his lips. "I don't understand women."

We started walking to our next classes. "Yeah, I don't think we ever will."

I turned left to the math room, while Nico entered the history room. I sat in my assigned seat, which to no surprise was next to Annabeth. I sat right by the door, so I had a good view into the history room. From here I could see Nico and a couple other students in there.

Our math teacher, Mr. Brent, came up to the front of the class,"Okay everyone, settle down, settle down. Today we're going to be learning about three different types of numbers. Rational, irrational and not real.

"Rational numbers are those that can be turned into a fraction. Rational numbers include natural numbers, whole numbers, fractions and decimals. Basically everything we've been working with the whole semester.

"An irrational number is a real number that cannot be turned into a fraction. Examples include pi, Euler's number, the golden ratio, and many different square roots, like the square root of two or the square root of three.

"The last type is not real. Like the name suggests, these numbers are not real. Examples include-"

"Wait a second," I interjected. "You're telling me that we're going to be working with numbers that don't exist? What's the next lesson going to be about? Unicorns? How to summon a patronus?"

The class roared in laughter. I smirked a little.

Mr. Brent just sighed. "Percy, there's literally nothing that you can do about it."

"And I recommend you change your shirt before the principal catches you with it," Mr. Brent advised. Everyone's neck turned. I could almost feel their eyes on my chest. The shirt was completely black with white block letters in the middle. It read "Fresh As Fuck".

"No can do." I simply replied.

"Don't say I didn't warn you," he shrugged.

"You didn't warn me, Mr. Brent."

I practically zoned out for the rest of the period. I hated math. Period. I gazed into the history room. Nico slumped in his seat, staring lazily at the front of the room. He turned his head to the door and caught my gaze. I waved. He grinned.

Out of boredom, I took out my pencil and placed it in between my top lip and my nose. Nico smiled as he did the same. We had a little contest of who can hold it there the longest. Someone cleared their throat behind me.

I turned to face the rest of the class with the pencil still on my lip. "What?"

The pencil dropped.

"Pay attention," Mr. Brent informed. He shut the classroom door. He went back to the front of the class explaining irrational numbers and making examples on the SMART-board. I zoned out again. Sometime later, the bell finally rang.

We all rushed to our lockers. Nico and Thalia were already there as usual.

"Hey Thals," I said apprehensively. Maybe she wasn't mad at me anymore. She continued to get her books without even looking up. She closed her locker and walked off. Maybe not.

"Did you get busted in math?" Nico grinned.

"Ha, yeah. Brent's so annoying," I responded.

"I have him next."

"The lesson is pretty stupid. You just have to listen to him talk about numbers that aren't even real for basically the whole hour."

"Well it beats having health with Locke. Deuces," he closed his locker and headed off to math. I shut mine, too. He wasn't lying, though. Health class is so awkward. And it's like our teacher, Mrs. Locke, tries to make it more awkward than it already is.

Most of the class was already there when I arrived. I took my assigned seat next to Hannah. The same Hannah that I mentioned in the car. This was the only class where I didn't sit next to Pill Breath.

"So the winter dance is coming up. Who are you going with?" Hannah twirled her chestnut hair with her index awkwardly. I grinned internally.

"I don't know. I might not even go," I said casually.

"It's a girl-ask-guy dance, you know. How many people asked you?"

"Fourteen, haha."

"And?"

"I said no to all of them."

"Playing hard to get or are you just waiting for someone specific?"

"I guess both."

"So... "

I smirked. "So...?"

"Would you maybe wanna go with me?"

"Nah."

"What? Why?"

"I'm kidding. Of course I'll go with you."

She hit me in the shoulder. "Don't do that! Scared me half to death."

The bell rang. Mrs. Locke went to the front of the class. She began asking us about our weekend so automatically turned my attention away.

I ripped out a little square piece of paper from my note book. I glanced up at the teacher to make sure she hadn't started the lesson yet. All clear. I took out a pencil and wrote "Will you go out with me?" in my best handwriting. I made two small boxes below it. I wrote "Yes" beside both boxes. Under that, I wrote "Check yes or yes". I proofread it for any errors. None. Maybe I should just hold on to it for a while. But then I'd forget. Making my decision, I folded the slip of paper and tossed it on Hannah's desk.

She glanced at me then opened it. I watched her hesitantly. She scanned the paper. It seemed like it was taking her forever to read it. Or was it just me panicking? She turned her head towards me. I turned away quickly, scratching the back of my head. I heard the sound of pencil meeting paper and the light tap of an object hitting my desk. I picked up the piece of paper and hastily opened it. But before I could even read it, it was snatched out of my hands. I looked up to see Mrs. Locke with the slip of paper in her hands.

"Passing notes, are we?" She smiled cruelly.

"I-"

"This is unacceptable. As for your punishment... Who wants me to read this out loud?" She turned to the class.

The class gave outburst of approval. Traitors. I let out an amused smile, but I was literally melting inside. I officially hated Mrs. Locke. Forever. And nothing would ever change that. Even Annabeth had a tiny smile peeking through her lips.

"Okay, settle down," Mrs. Locke cleared her throat. "Will you go out with me? Check yes or yes."

The class erupted in laughter. I glanced at Hannah. She sank a little in her seat.

"What did she check?" Someone called out.

"Don't you think it would ruin the suspense for poor little Percy if I just said it out loud?"

At least she had a little decency.

"So I'll just show you, instead."

Nevermind. She went row by row, showing each student what Hannah had checked. When she came to my row, she skipped me and went to the next row. I gritted my teeth. When she was finished, she tore it up and threw it in the recycle bin.

"And that, ladies and gentlemen, is what happens if you pass notes in my class," she informed. She went to her desk and started searching her drawers for something.

I glanced at Hannah.

"Give me your hand," she whispered. I obeyed. She took out a black ink pen and wrote something on the back of my hand. The sensation tickled. I pulled it back when she was done. It read "Yes", with a small heart by it. Something inside my chest just did a backflip, I swear.

Mrs. Locke came back up to the front of the class with a short stack of papers in her hand.

"Now today we're going to start on a project. I know you're having a ton of projects this week, but bear with me. This is summative, meaning that it's worth 100 points of your grade. This project will be done with a partner so start thinking of who you're going to choose. But, if you're a boy, you have to choose a girl, and if you're a girl, you have to choose a boy. We have a pretty even ratio of girls to boys so I'm pretty sure that no one will end up with a partner of the same sex."

'Me and you?' I mouthed at Hannah. She nodded.

"Now for the project itself, you will be taking care of a baby for one full week. You will bring it back next Monday. Everything that the baby needs is on these pieces of paper. By the way it's a fake baby, in case you didn't know.

"Anyway, it's all on this sheet of paper. Don't lose them. We have electronic trackers inside of the baby that tells us it's emotions. If you bring your baby back on Monday and the tracker tells me that the baby is mad, sad, furious or any other negative emotion, you and your partners grade is going to be lowered dramatically. If you come back on Monday without your baby, you and your partners grade immediately goes to an F.

"But if you bring your baby back on Monday and it's in okay condition, then I'll give some points for that and your grade may be increased by one letter grade. If you bring your baby back on Monday and it's in excellent condition, the tracker tells me that it's happy and if it's been well taken care of, then that's a guaranteed A+ for you and your partner. Understood?

"Now, go ahead and pick your partners. When you have someone, come up to my desk and I will assign you a baby. Each baby has a specific code written on its bum bum. That way I'll know if you switched babies with another group. Switching of babies will result in a lowered grade. Go."

Everyone immediately got up and mass hysteria broke out as everyone searched for a partner. Hannah and I walked to Mrs. Locke's desk. We were the first ones there.

"Mrs. Locke," I said. She looked up, previously preoccupied. "We're ready."

"Find different partners," she said simply.

"Why?" Hannah inquired.

"For passing notes in class."

"Are you serious? That's not fair-" I erupted.

"It's plenty fair. You break the rules, you get punished. Go find different partners."

We both groaned. Pretty much everyone else was paired up. Maybe Thalia... I scanned the room searching for her long onyx hair. There she was! In the back right next to some boy and... Ew, pill breath. I prayed that the boy had partnered with pill breath and not Thalia.

I approached them. Thalia glanced at me then rolled her eyes. I frowned.

"I'm guessing you don't want to be partners, then?" I asked.

"Annabeth doesn't have a partner, why don't you pick her?" She replied.

"So you're talking to me now? What happened to the cold shoulder?" I said, completely ignoring what she had said.

"Who said I wasn't talking to you?"

"Well, that's kind of what I assumed."

"Just so you know there's no other girl remaining."

I looked around. She was right. Pretty much everyone was partnered up. Some were even playing with their new baby, while the rest were lining up in front of Mrs. Locke's desk.

I glanced at pill breath. It occurred to me that the boy was Thalia's partner.

"I really didn't sign up for this," I said to Thalia. She shrugged. I groaned silently and approached pill breath.

"Do you want to be my partner?" I forced out. "But then again, you have no choice, so let's just go."

I turned around and went to the line in front of Locke's desk without waiting for a response. When I came up in line I turned my head to see where she was. She was standing in the spot I left her. I waved my hand in a "come over here" gesture.

She said something I couldn't hear to Thalia. Thalia laughed and said something back. Pill breath groaned and came in line next to me.

After a few seconds, we were up at the desk. Mrs. Locke handed us a baby. She then let out a small chuckle. "This is a recipe for disaster."

I ignored her then took the baby. After everyone had a baby, Mrs. Locke came to the front of the room again.

"When the bell rings, you must leave your baby in the class room. But everyone must pick it up after school. You guys need to write down your baby's code so you know which one is yours when you come to pick it up. The bell should ring shortly. Have a good day."

I undressed the baby and put the baby's butt in pill breath's face.

"Write down the code," I told her.

She took out a piece of paper and copied down the code. I decreased the distance between the butt and her face.

"I could read it from where you had it before," she told me.

"Just making sure," I said, trying not to laugh.

The bell rang.

"Off you go," Mrs. Locke waved us off. We stampeded out and into the filled halls. I dropped my stuff off at my locker and headed to the gym for P.E. When I walked in, I noticed that everyone was slowly walking around gazing at the walls and floor. The usually polished wood floor was replaced by a deep blue cushiony surface. The walls were covered with the same surface, except that they were extremely white. The lights on the ceiling seemed to be brighter than usual. Or maybe it seemed so because of the white walls.

On the far left side of the gym there were dozens of white suits and skinny silver swords. Fencing, I assumed.

Once everyone was present, our P.E teacher, Mr. Caspars, told us to hit the locker rooms. The rest of the boys and I went through the door on the right side of the gym while the girls went through the left.

When we got back in the gym, Mr. Caspars was waiting in the center with two white suits and swords lying at his feet. He called us over and made us make a semi circle around him.

"Obviously, today we're going to begin fencing. Like the new digs? You better because they're going to be here for a while. Today is just a practice day. You're going to learn the just the basics and forms. After a quick demonstration, you guys are going to get in partners and fence the whole hour.

Now, who wants to demonstrate basic fencing? I need two volunteers."

No one raised their hand so I just stepped up.

"Ah, Jackson. Anyone else?" Mr. Caspars asked. No one volunteered.

"Okay, then I'll pick," he decided. "How about...Chase. Get up here."

Annabeth stepped forward. A few snickers broke out. I let out an amused smirk. This would take the same amount of effort as fighting a third grader. We both put on the white suits, which were surprisingly comfortable. The head piece made my vision a bit darker, but I could still see okay. The sword was light and thin.

"Ēpée's at the ready. Knees bent and toes facing your opponent. Left arm away from your waist," Mr. Caspars informed. We obeyed his every command. "Begin in 3, 2, 1, go!"

I stepped forwards. She stepped back. I took another. She moved back again. Coward. I lunged with the sword point aiming for her abdomen. She parried with the hand shield. I backed away and waited for her to make a move. She didn't. This was going to be too easy. I made a slash at her shoulder. She intercepted my blade. Without hesitation I side stepped to her left and tried to get a shot at her side, but she blocked me again.

I faked left and swung right, but she parried me again. I tried to swipe then stab, but she blocked once again. Losing my patience, I began to attack relentlessly. She blocked everyone of my attacks. I began to run out of breath and my movement speed decreased. I advanced and jabbed straight at her chest. She intercepted with a upwards swipe then she slashed at my shoulder. I parried and tried to make another strike, but she made a stab at my side and forced me to step back.

Her attitude had completely changed. She was relentless. She kept forcing me to step back and I was running out of floor. The back wall was only a about five or four feet away.

Then suddenly, she stopped. She just stood still with her arms at her side. I couldn't miss this opportunity, so I lunged. She made half a step back and slammed my blade with hers so hard that I lost grip and it flew out of my hand. I was left defenseless. She then leaned forward and planted her foot straight on my chest then launched me backwards against the wall. My back slammed into the padding of the wall hard. My butt slid down onto the floor and I opened my eyes.

My sword was lying on the floor, meters away from me. Annabeth was standing up four feet away. I was sitting, leaning against the wall. I had lost. I ripped my head piece off and shouted, "What the hell was that?"

"Looks to me like you got beat by a girl," Annabeth took off her head piece and smirked.

"You're only supposed to use your sword, right teach?"

"It's called an Ēpée and no, you can kick or arm block. This isn't professional," Mr. Caspars replied.

"Well I didn't know that. I call a rematch."

"You two can fight as much as you want. Everyone else get into partners and fence."

I watched the others pair up. Nico and Thalia had begun an exciting match to watch.

"Gonna fight or stare all day?" Annabeth called. I stood up,but almost fell back down again. I didn't realize how much it had hurt when I slammed into the wall. Annabeth let out a stifled laugh.

"Shut up, Chase," I glared.

"Gonna do something about it?"

I put my head piece back on and picked up my Ēpée.

"Hell yeah I am."

I charged her. She sidestepped and swung at my exposed back. I twisted around and intercepted with the flat of my blade. She tried to place a kick, but I knew better and grabbed her ankle before her foot reached my neck. She was now at my mercy.

Without hesitating, she twisted and launched a kick with her other leg. My options were to release her ankle or get kicked in the face. Frankly I wasn't up for option two. I let go and stepped back as she landed on both her feet. How could she do that?

She lunged forwards and her sword point met my neck. I stood still.

She took off her head piece. "I believe I win again."

We kept fighting for the rest of the period. All I wanted was to beat her just once. But no, she had to win EVERY FREAKING TIME. I can't lose to her. Nah, that's just embarrassing. I'm supposed to be better than her at everything, because she's a loser. Losers aren't supposed to be good at something. Caspars called us back a few minutes before the bell rang to change into back into our regular clothes. Good thing lunch was right after this because I was starving.

We sat at our regular table in the cafeteria. The tables were huge and round, with a crack down the middle so that the custodians could fold them up and put them in storage after lunch was over. There were about eight rows of these tables in the cafeteria. Each row having four tables. We were allowed only ten people as a maximum for each table.

Our table always had nine. It was Nico, Thalia, Zoe, Beckendorf, Silena, the Stolls, and Nico's sister Bianca. Sometimes we had seven when the Stolls were missing. Like if one of the two got sick, the other would stay at home. You would never see one of them at school while the other wasn't.

I picked up a pizza slice and a Snapple and made my way to my table, sticking my foot out to trip a nerd on the way back. I saw Nico stifle a laugh at our table.

"Poor kid. That wasn't nice, Perce," Zoe said as I sat down.

"The little twat called me an 'egotistical antagonizer' last Wednesday. He deserved it," I told her.

"Language," she warned me.

"Sorry mom."

She grinned and elbowed me in the ribs playfully. I took a swig of my drink and partook in a few conversations in our table and noticed that Thalia had been silent this whole time. She kept constantly looking at the other end of the cafeteria. I turned my head to see what she was looking at. I have no idea.

"Still mad at me?" I asked her.

She either didn't hear or was ignoring me.

"Yep," I answered and yielded.

"She's mad at you?" Zoe asked.

"Yeppers."

"What happened?"

"She started giving me crap about me being a jerk or whatever."

"Then?"

"Then she ran off."

Thalia got up and left the table.

"Like that," I added.

We turned our heads to see where she was going. She went all the way to the other side of the caf and sat down at a table that only had like two people.

"You must have really pissed her off," Zoe told me.

"Quite the opposite. She's the one who pissed me off. She just blew up on me when we were talking."

"Maybe one of you should apologize," she leaned on my shoulder. "Hint, hint."

"You're right."

"Thank you."

"Thalia should apologize."

"No, dork. I was talking about you."

"I really don't see that happening anytime soon."

"But even if you are right. Which I'm not saying you are. Maybe you should be the bigger person and just apologize. Then we'll all live happily ever after."

"I already weigh more than her."

"You know what I mean."

"Fine, I'll think about it."

The bell rang. Lunch was over.

"C'mon, let's go," Zoe rushed me to our fifth period which was biology with Mr. Alexander.

The bell rang again, just as Zoe and I walked in the classroom.

"You were almost late, Mr. Jackson and Ms. Nightshade," Mr. Alexander notified us.

"The key word being 'almost'," I told him. Guffaws broke out. I sat down in my assigned seat in between Beck(beckendorf) and Annabeth.

"Anyway," Mr. Alexander began. "I have been informed that you guys are having quite a few projects this week. So I think you will be delighted to hear that I'm not assigning a project today. I might be tomorrow, but not today. Instead of that, we are going to be working on a little lab/assignment. I know that we finished the chapter on genetics, but I found this really interesting PDF that we could do. It's really simple, but kind of long.

"So get in pairs. I recommend that you get a partner of the opposite sex for this assignment, but it's your choice. The worksheets are on the stool in the front. I'll be at my desk if you need me. Make sure to keep the volume down and work till the bell rings. Have fun."

He headed to his desktop in the back corner of the room. We all know he didn't mean it when he told us to keep it down. Mr. Alexander is pretty much the best teacher in the whole school.

Everyone was up and about, moving to different seats or getting the materials on the stool. Zoe plopped down on the chair that Beck earlier occupied, right next to me. She dropped the information sheet and two pennies onto our workspace.

"You again," I fake groaned.

"Shut up," she grinned.

I read the title of the sheet.

"Create A Baby?" I raised my eyebrows.

"Okaaay. Well let's at least make this baby look fabulous. What are the directions?"

"We put our names up here," I pointed at the top of the sheet. I wrote Percy next to where it said 'father:'. Zoe wrote hers where it said 'mother:'.

"Okay, next determine the sex of the child," I read. I picked up one of the pennies. "If it's heads then it's a boy and if it's tails then it's a boy-"

"Nope, if it's tails it's a girl."

"Whatevs," I flipped the penny. It landed on tails.

"Let me flip again-"

"Nope. Sucks to suck," she wrote down 'female' on the sheet.

"Give your child a name and record it on the space below," I read.

"Let's name her Audrey," Zoe suggested.

"Or we could name her Percia Jacksonius."

"I really feel bad for your future wife, you know. Having to deal with you."

"Thanks for the love and support."

"My pleasure," she wrote down Audrey Jackson on the sheet.

"Select which genes your child will have. Each trait will have two genes, one from each parent."

"Okay, the first trait is face shape. Round or square," Zoe observed.

We filled the sheet accordingly, going through the countless traits that were listed.

"Now we have to draw the baby," I noted. I'm proficient in drawing and sketching so I did the work. After a few minutes of sketching and Zoe throwing out tips like, "Don't forget mommy's dimples," or, "Your cheekbones are curvier than that," I had finished. We had to tape the product on the board when we were done and then wait for anyone who wasn't done to finish up.

I noticed how Zoe and I were pretty much the only ones who weren't uncomfortable by the assignment. We were such good friends that it didn't matter how awkward things could be. If it were Nico and I working on this, we would've just laughed it off, too.

The bell rang.

"See you in fcs," Zoe gave me a quick hug and we headed to our next class. My sixth hour was FCS. Which was short for Food Consumer Science. It was an elective class in which we learned about nutrition and occasionally made various foods. Lucky for me, I wasn't late to this class. But it wouldn't matter because the teacher, Mrs. Willows, was really easygoing.

The bell rang a minute after I entered. Mrs. Willows took our attention.

"As you all know, today is our foods lab. You're going to need the recipe sheet from Friday. I will assign groups and kitchen numbers, so listen closely. Kitchen one is Zoe Nightshade, Charles Beckendorf and Silena Beauregard. Kitchen two is Katie Gardner, Travis Stoll and Connor Stoll. Kitchen three is Hannah Newman, Annabeth Chase and Percy Jackson. Kitchen four is Clarisse La Rue, William Solace, and Nico Di Angelo. Lastly kitchen five is Bianca Di Angelo, Luke Castellan and Christopher Rodriguez. I'm not repeating that. When you've finished making your pancakes, you'll find the syrup in your refrigerator. Distribute fairly. Go!"

Everyone rushed around and got sorted. Hannah and Annabeth. I wasn't really happy about this, but I wasn't really upset about it. It gave me sort of a bittersweet feeling. Annabeth being the bitter part. I trudged to my kitchen without the recipe sheet we were required to have. I remember crumbling it up and chucking it at pill breath's face on Friday. Hannah and Annabeth had already started.

"What do we do first?" I asked in general.

"Get out the equipment," Annabeth snapped.

"Did I say you could talk?" I raised a brow at her.

"I can talk whenever I want."

"But please do us all a favor and shut that mouth of yours, Chase."

Her face turned red. She didn't say another word. Hannah smirked.

"So what do we do first?" I asked again.

"Get out the equipment," Hannah stated with a slight grin on her face.

"Right." We got out the necessary utensils that were listed on Hannah's recipe sheet. Annabeth just stood to the side and watched us.

"Are you just gonna stand there like an idiot? Get the ingredients, retard," I scolded. She obeyed silently.

"Hey, I'm gonna go get a drink. Keep the freak in check," Hannah told me as she marched to Mrs. Willows' desk to ask. The teacher nodded her head and let her go. I began mixing the batter, while pill breath worked the stove. As I made my way to the mini fridge, a sizzling noise sounded behind me. I twisted around. The pan on the stove burst into flames. Annabeth fell back in suprise.

"You left the oil on for too long!" I ran and turned on the faucet, scooping some water with my hands and dumped on the pan. Just as the water hit the pan, steam erupted everywhere and a huge flume of fire burst upwards.

Well, shit. Mrs. Willows came running to our rescue. She took the lid of the pan and smothered the flame. I stood back and watched as the steam dissipated. After the fire was extinguished, she glared straight at me.

"And that's why you don't put water on an oil flame. You've failed my class. Both of you," she stated.

The bell rang. My next hour was a free period. As I was at my locker, I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned to see Annabeth with a large white poster.

"What?" I snapped.

"We have to work on the project for English," she said flatly. I had completely forgotten about that.

"Okay, where at?"

She turned and walked away without responding. I followed her. She made a few unfamiliar turns through the school, then opened a wooden door straight across from the water fountain. We entered an extremely large room lined with bookshelves filled with books. There were couches scattered around and about 20-25 students milling around.

"Whoa," I exclaimed. "What's up with all the books?"

"It's a library, idiot," she took a seat at one of the couches.

"I never knew this school had one of these," I followed her example.

She rolled her eyes. She took out a sheet of paper from her binder and spread it on the table.

"What first?" I asked.

"Attributes."

"…okay, spit something out."

"What about you?"

"Nah, you're the nerd here, remember?"

"We'll get it done faster if you actually helped."

"Fine. What about Pregnos, the god of unplanned pregnancy?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"It's too- just think of something else."

"What about Mrs. Foral, goddess of stupid homework assignments."

"That would just get us in trouble."

"Annabeth, goddess of being a pussy."

She rolled her eyes.

I laughed. "You like that one don't you?"

"If you're not going to be serious then I'll just do it myself and tell Foral that you didn't do any of it."

"Fine, what about Cockus, god of erectile dysfunction?"

"Percy…"

"I'm trying! What about Ur-anus, god of large a-"

"No."

"Since you're rejecting everything I come up with, then why don't you think of something?"

"How about-"

"No."

"At least let me-"

"Wait, shut up, I have an idea," I shushed her.

"What is it?"

"Idioticus."

"What?"

"Idioticus. God of stupidity."

"You must be related to idioticus, because that's the stupidest idea I've ever heard of."

"My ass could come up with a better insult. But seriously, idioticus. His relation to a natural phenomenon would be when people say, "You're acting like an idioticus." The expression would come from him."

"It's going to be all you're fault if we fail."

"Yeah, but we're not going to fail. If you don't like it then we could do Tamponia, goddess of tampons. Her powers would be to absorb certain liquids."

"Yeah no, let's stick with your dumb idea. The first one, I mean."

The bell rang.

"Catch ya later, loser," I scrambled out the library. I made my way to Mr. Foster's room for my elective class, which was Newscast. It's basically the school news that we record at the last hour of school then it airs the next morning at school. The bell rang as I walked in.

"Good afternoon newscasters," Mr. Fosters welcomed us. "First order of business, reporters, let me see what you've dug up."

Our two reporters, Katie Gardiner and Will Solace handed Fosters their information sheets.

"Excellent," Fosters returned the sheets. "Now, you guys talk it out with your two anchors and begin filming when you're ready. back to me when ." He left us and headed to his desk.

Katie and Will informed the two anchors, Annabeth and I, of their leads while the others got the filming equipment ready.

Annabeth and I sat behind our desktop and the cameras trained their focus on us. Two filled coffee cups sat on the desktop just for us to get the feel of being anchors. The cameraman, a boy with blonde hair named Malcolm, counted down from 3.

"2, 1, action."

"Good morning, Clearwater Pines. I'm your anchorman, Percy Jackson."

"And I'm Annabeth Chase and this is Clearwater News," she chimed.

"Lets begin with news from inside the school. What've you got, Annabel?"

"Annabeth," she glared at me.

"Don't care," I smirked. Malcolm shot us a look and mouthed 'Cut the chatter'.

"Anyway, Chess club is starting this Thursday. There are fliers all over the school. If you want to join, head to Mrs. Frey's room and she'll sign you up. Back to you, Perseus."

I glowered. "Good to see that nerds like Bethy over here, have something to do after school hours."

She kicked me in the shin.

"Oww-kay then."

"Nice save," she mumbled.

"Moving on. Boys basketball has begun. Tryouts are in the gym at 3:20. So go on over."

"Boys wrestling has also begun," Annabeth introduced. "If you enjoy groping other boys on a sweaty mat, then this is the sport for you."

"It's not groping, it's using strength alone to pin your combatant to the ground."

"For what point?"

"To see who's stronger. Duh."

"Why?"

"Because people like seeing fights."

"As well as boys groping other boys?"

"Not necessarily."

"Okay, let me restate. If you're a boy and you want to get the opportunity to touch other boys on a sweaty mat, then this is the sport for you."

I rolled my eyes. "Moving on. Who likes school lunch? Well apparently, the district is forcing our schools' lunch ladies to wear thicker hairnets after the incident that happened last week. Give us the scoop, Annabeth."

"Last week a boy was hospitalized from choking on his pasta which happened to have had a clump of hairs mixed within. Medics at the local hospital managed to get the hair out of his esophagus and the boy is feeling much better. Back to you, Percy."

"We will return with news from outside the school right after the weather report from our weather woman, Zoe Nightshade. What's the scoop, Zoe?"

The cameras turned to Zoe, who stood by a green screen.

"Things aren't looking so good for us here in Portland, Oregon. We're going to be having snow showers tonight. I expect 1 or 2 inches. We have a cold front coming in from Washington. We have gotten reports that Seattle was hit with a major blizzard and those same clouds are heading for Portland. I expect the storm to hit us over the weekend, on Saturday or Sunday.

All schools in the Portland area will most likely be closed the following week, so enjoy that week and stay indoors over the weekend. That's all for the weather. Back to you, Percy."

"Did you hear that, guys? No school for a whole week. Nico, you're coming over, I don't care what your mom says. Now for the news outside of school. What's the insider, Bethy?"

"Haha," she kicked me in the shin again.

"Ow!"

"Don't call me Bethy."

"Sorry Bethy."

She placed another kick.

"Okay! Jeez," I yielded.

"Anyway, our previous crossing guard, Mel has retired. If any of the staff wants to fill in while we look for a permanent guard, check in at the front office. And that is all for the news, I'm Annabeth Chase."

"And I'm Percy Jackson, wishing you a safe day and all that. Have a normal afternoon. Cut." And that's pretty much how these few crazy weeks began.

* * *

**Hello. This is my first ever full story, so do I like introduce my self or whatever? Well I'm Halley. Anyway, all I have done for this story is this chapter and most of the plot. But I figured that I might as well publish this to see if anyone would be interested. So it's kinda up to you to decide if I should continue. If you like this then please review, favorite, follow or even PM me. If I see that you guys like it then I'll make a notification on my profile, so check for that. If we do go through with this, just know that I won't update right away. I'll have to begin working on the other chapters and I will probably start updating when I've got the climax all wrapped up. So it might take a while, but please hang on for me. I guess that's it for now. Bye.**


	2. Monday Afternoon

After the last bell rang I made my way back to Locke's classroom. Apparently Annabeth was already there, waiting at the doorframe with our baby. Ew, did I just say 'our baby'?

"How's this going to work?" She asked me.

I scratched the back of my head in thought. I got elbowed in the ribs before I could respond. It was Nico.

"Zoë, Thalia, the Stolls and I are going to the mall. You in?" He asked.

"Yeah, but what about the health project?" I retorted.

"Just get one of your sibs to do it for you. Bianca said she'll take care of mine."

"You partnered up with her?"

"Everyone else was taken, dude."

"I'll just get Wren to do it. She's into that kind of stuff."

"Alright, let's go."

I turned to Annabeth. "My little sis is going to take care of the baby, so you can go do whatever the hell you do after school."

"Nah, she's coming with us," Thalia approached us. "Zoe's sister is waiting out front."

She left without saying a word. Annabeth followed her.

I turned to Nico. "Why is she suddenly trying to make my life miserable?"

"Poor guy. Come on," he took off towards the front doors. I followed.

A yellow Volkswagen van was parked in the front. The doors popped open revealing Zoe, the Stolls, Annabeth, Thalia, and Arty (Zoe's sister) inside. Nico got in the back row while I took passenger. Zoe shut the doors.

"So where's the first stop?" Arty questioned.

"My house," I answered.

"Gotcha." The car rolled out of the parking lot and into the street.

"I don't think we've met before," Zoe attempted to start a conversation with Annabeth. "I'm Zoë."

"Good to meet you. I'm Annabeth."

"You seem nice."

Annabeth? Nice? I gagged.

Arty turned her head. "Carsick?"

"No. Something much worse," I responded.

The van rolled to a stop in front of my house. I hopped out onto the frosty cement. Zoe followed me. We made our way into my house and into the living room where Charlie and Wren were playing. Wren was nine while Charlie was ten.

"Wren, I need you to do me a favor," I requested.

"No. I'm not changing Marcy's litter box again," She snapped.

"That's not what I was going to say. But now that you mention it, I also need you to do that."

"Never mind, what did you want?" She asked.

I pulled out the plastic baby. "I need you to take care of this baby for a whole week."

Her green eyes shone. "Really? I can do that!" She held out her hands.

"This is a big responsibility, though. If it starts crying, then put this in its mouth." I pulled out the little bottle of plastic milk. "If it's still crying then take off its diaper and put it back on. Treat it like a real baby."

"Percy, please. I'm an expert." She took the baby and the bottle. "But it's gonna cost ya."

"No."

"Fine, then I'm telling mom that you're forcing me to do your schoolwork."

"How'd you know that this is for school?"

"I know people. You have two options: I tell mom or you give me something in return for taking care of the baby."

"Wren, you're nine years old. Who taught you how to blackmail?"

"Like I said, I know people."

"Fine, if you do good with the baby, then I'll take you to the mall."

"What's the cash limit?"

"$30 maximum."

"$50."

"$40."

"Deal."

"Also one more thing. Don't let Charlie touch it. He'll screw it up," I added.

"Hey! Why can't I touch it?" Charlie argued.

"Cause I said so."

"Oh yeah?"

I turned to Zoe. "Can you do something about him?"

"Charlie, don't touch the baby," Zoe commanded.

"O-of course. A-anything you say, Zoë," He stammered.

Charlie has a huge crush on Zoe, despite the fact that he's only ten years old. Arty sounded her car horn.

"Later losers," I called as we left the house. Zoe and I hopped back in the yellow Volkswagen and were soon on our way to Clearwater Mall.

* * *

We all hopped off the van and waved as it pulled out of the parking lot. We made our way to the mall entrance.

"Why did I even agree to do this?" Travis began. "I've got like no money on me."

"That's cause you lost it from me. Remember Friday?" Connor asked him.

"Oh yeah."

"What happened Friday?" Zoe asked.

"I made a deal with Travis stating that he had to ask out Katie, you know, Katie Gardiner, and if she said yes he could have all my money and vice versa."

"Tough luck, Travis," I said. "Going on a new approach or are you just giving up?"

"Nah, I'm giving up. For now."

We entered the mall.

"Here's the thing, Annabeth, Zoe, Nico and I are gonna branch off, so you guys can do whatever," Thalia stated.

"Sorry Thals," Nico began. "But I'm going with them."

"No, I need to talk to you in private," she took his elbow and walked off with Annabeth and Zoe.

"Guess I'm stuck with you two. What now?" I asked.

"I have an idea. Come on," Connor ran off to the center of the mall. They were having this thing where little kids get to sit on Santa's lap and ask him what they want for Christmas.

"Dudes, I have to sit on Santa's lap. It's on my bucket list," Connor told us. "You guys have to take pics, though. I'm gonna get so many follows on Instagram…"

"I'm up for it," Travis agreed.

"Me too, but they're not gonna let you on looking like that," I said. "We have to make you look like a kid."

"Good idea! And you guys have to dress up like my parents because they're not gonna let a random kid just walk in line."

"Okay then, gentlemen, let's go shopping," I announced. After a two minute debate with Travis, I ended up being the mom. We were to shop separately and meet back at the line for Santa. And of course, Connor lent Travis some money.

The first order of business was to get my hair done like a girl instead of using my limited cash on a wig. I found a few willing girls that helped me with it, free of charge. The next thing was make up, lipstick, eyeliner and mascara. So I went to Sephora and asked one of the employees to fix me up. I lied and told her that it was for my sick friend who had the flu. She did it with out asking any questions.

Next, I needed clothes, so I found a girl in Forever 21 to help me shop for clothes. I ended up getting a nude colored dress that ended shortly above my knees and some black heels, which were very hard to walk in and super uncomfortable. How do girls survive in these? Next, I bought a large bra, stuffed them with toilet paper and slipped them directly onto my nipples.

I returned to the center of the mall looking sexy as fuck. I look freaking fabulous as a girl. And those are seven words I thought I'd never say in my entire life.

I glanced around for any sign of any of the Stolls. None so far. An unshaven fellow began walking my way. This is about to get really awkward.

"Damn, babe. You lookin' fine. Lemme show you a good time," he swaggered.

I took a step back. In my best feminine voice, I said, "Thanks, but I'm not really interested."

"You're making the wrong decision, babe. Come with me."

"No, sir. Leave me alone."

"Agh," he waved me off and began to walk away. "You looked like a slut anyways."

Oh really?

"Hold on," I called. "I'll go with you."

He stopped in his tracks.

"Follow me, I have the perfect place," I headed for the women's restroom.

"Ooh la la," he cooed as he entered with me.

Once we were both inside the empty women's restroom, I turned to face him.

"I have something for you. Close your eyes, no peeking," I faked a smile.

"Yes ma'am," he said as he shut his eyes. I clenched my fist into a tight ball and decked him straight at his jaw. The man yelped and fell onto the tiled floor. He gripped his jaw and attempted to get up, but I had other plans. The tip of my high heel met his groin and down he went. His body slumped unconsciously across the tile.

I grinned and cracked my knuckles.

"No one calls Percy Jackson a slut," I chuckled as I walked out. Travis was waiting at the lap sitting when I got back. He looked like a young business man with a suit and everything.

"Hey, where's Connor?" I asked.

"Is that you, Percy? Whoa, dude."

"I look sexy as fuck, I know. Where's Connor?"

"He was right behind me. He should be here in a sec."

"Oh, by the way, I just beat up a guy in the bathroom."

"You what?!"

"He called me a slut! What would you have done?"

"Throttled him."

"Exactly."

"There's Connor," Travis pointed behind me. I turned around to see Connor wearing childish clothes that were several sizes too small and one of those hats with a little helicopter rotor at the top. He also took the liberty of buying himself a toy jet.

"Travis, who's your lady friend?" Connor winked at me.

"It's me," I smacked the back of his head.

"Percy? Dude, I didn't even recognize ya."

"Yeah, whatever. Let's get this done."

"Nah, dude. I have to get a picture of you."

"No way. Try that and you'll lose a limb."

"Fine. Let's get in line."

The three of us stepped up into the line. After a few minutes we were next. The little kid on Santa's lap just had to finish telling Santa what he wanted for Christmas.

"Dude, these heels are killing me," I complained.

"Not my problem," Travis retorted.

"Guys. I kinda don't wanna do this anymore," Connor said.

"Come on. Don't be a pussy. Plus, I didn't dress up like this for you chicken out. Look it's your turn."

The little kid on Santa's lap hopped off and exited with his mother.

"Stay on him for as long as possible," I whispered to Connor as he walked over. He nodded and smirked. He then proceeded to sit onto Santa's lap.

Just as Connor placed his butt on Santa, Santa wheezed and grunted.

"Whoa, kid! How much do you weigh?" he mumbled.

"Hi Santa," Connor said in a faux soprano.

"Wait a second," Santa narrowed his eyes at the teenage boy on his lap. "You're not a child."

"I-I don't know what you're talking about. I'm ten years old."

"Security!" Santa yelled and shoved Connor off his lap. Several men in dark blue uniforms came rushing for Connor. He quickly scrambled to his feet, ripped off Santa's fake beard and yelled," He's not the real Santa, children!"

And so we ran.

A boy in small, tight clothes. Another boy in a large baggy suit. And a woman. All three, running through the mall with four mall cops chasing after them. At least that's what the public saw us as.

I was the one moving the slowest, due to my heels. I was losing ground. So I quickly slipped them off and ran to the nearest female, which was an elderly woman in a wheelchair and gave her the heels, saying, "Merry Christmas." And took off once more.

"Where are we going!" I yelled.

"I don't know!" Travis shouted.

"Split up!" Connor yelled.

Without thinking about it, I swerved left while Travis went straight and Connor took right. I was quickly running out of breath. Up ahead I noticed a familiar figure. Long blonde hair. Stormy grey eyes. She talking with someone, I couldn't tell who. The guy said something that made Annabeth show off a small smile. The guy tilted his head back in laughter. It was Luke Castellan. I barely know him, but he's in a few of my classes.

I was barreling towards them at an incredible speed, the mall cops were still on my tail.

Luke placed his index and middle fingers under Annabeth's chin.

The distance between them and I decreased.

He leaned in.

I was meters away.

Their lips were centimeters away from each other.

I took a leap of faith and dived onto Luke Castellan. The collision knocked us both onto the ground hard. Annabeth stepped back and covered her mouth in shock as I struggled to get off him. The dress I was wearing didn't make it easy to get up. Zoe and Thalia blocked me from running away.

"Who are you?" Zoe demanded. My eyes accidentally locked with hers for a second. And in that moment I knew she figured out my identity. Impulsively, turned and raced to the food court.

I found Travis and Connor hiding behind a trash can, looking around suspiciously.

"Guys," I panted. "We have to change into our regular clothes. Like now. The mall cops aren't that far behind. You guys still have your regular clothes, right?"

"Mine are in my backpack," Connor turned to show me his swelled olive backpack.

"Briefcase," Travis confirmed, showing me the black leather box he was holding.

"Mine's in this shopping bag. We need to find a place to change clothes," I stated.

"The bathrooms are back the way we came, so we can't use those or we'll get caught," said Travis.

"Wait, guys, look around. We're in a food court. There's gotta be a bathroom in one of these mini restaurants," said Connor.

"There are, but they're for the employees only," Travis announced.

"Well we're going to have to get inside somehow," I told them.

"Wait, Travis," Connor turned to his brother. "Doesn't Katie work at one of these restaurants? I remember you forcing me to come here just so you could try and flirt with her."

Travis' cheeks flushed red. "I don't remember ever doing that, but yeah, she does work here."

"Okay, which restaurant? There's like eight of them in the entire court. Maybe we can ask her if we could use their bathrooms," I said.

"She works at Dairy Queen, but I don't know if she'll let us in," Travis explained.

"Then use your lady magic," I told him.

"That's the problem. I don't have lady magic."

"You at least have to try."

"I don't know dude."

"It's either that or we get thrown in mall jail."

"Mall jail isn't even a thing."

"Whatever, but you have to try. Just once. If it fails then it fails. Nothing more we could do about it. But we actually have a shot at this. All we need is you to grow some balls and talk to one girl. That's all."

He thought for a second. "Fine, let's do it."

"Yes! Lead us there."

Travis escorted us to Dairy Queen. We made sure to be very stealthy and kept watch for a sign of the cops. We made it there in short timing. Katie Gardiner was behind the counter waiting for potential customers.

"Get up there, tiger," Connor nudged his brother up to the counter.

"Hey, Travis," Katie's eyes gleamed.

"Oh, hey. Didn't see you there. I mean I did see you there, that's why I- I just didn't, like, fully see you a-and um... yeah," Travis stammered. I face palmed. Connor snickered.

"Um, are you okay? You seem a bit...anxious," Katie asked.

"I'm sorry. Can we start over?" Travis twiddled his thumbs.

Katie gave an amused smile. "Hello Travis."

"Hello Katie."

Katie fixed her hair. "So may I take your order?"

"Actually, I was sort of wondering if you could do me a quick favor?"

"Sure, anything."

"Can you let us in the restrooms? We're sort of in a hurry."

"These are for employees only."

"Yeah, I know but we need to change into different clothes so that we don't get arrested by the mall police."

"What? What did you do?"

"It's sort of a long story and we really don't have much time."

A herd of blue uniformed men stormed into the food court.

"Travis!" I whisper shouted. "Look!"

"They're here!" He told Katie. "We don't have much time. Please help us."

Katie looked around. "Fine. Hide behind the counter. Quickly."

We followed her instructions and ducked out of sight behind the counter. Multiple footsteps approached the restaurant counter.

"Excuse me ma'am, but have you seen a kid in overly small clothing, another in a baggy suit and woman with fairly hairy legs run past here?" A gruff voice asked from in front of the counter.

"Actually, I have," Said Katie. "I saw all three of them run left towards that way, then they boarded the escalator going to the lower floor."

"Thank you ma'am."

By the sound of the footsteps, I assumed that they ran off.

Katie turned to us. "All clear. Go change before my manager comes back from break."

The three of us rushed inside the employees bathroom. We came back out shortly. I had to wash out all the makeup and mascara off my face. It was disgusting. Plus I had to ruffle my hair a lot just to make it look like it did before this incident. I'm listening to Connor ever again.

We rushed out quickly and hopefully no one saw what just happened.

"Thanks," Travis told Katie.

"No problem, but you better give me an explanation tomorrow."

"Of course," Travis grinned. We turned to leave.

"Travis," Katie called.

He turned around.

"One more thing," Katie grabbed a fistful of his shirt, pulled him against the counter and pecked his lips.

"Good luck," she told him.

"Um, yeah. I- you too," he stammered, still stuck to the floor.

"Come on, Casanova," Connor and I had to drag him away.

Travis was beaming during the entire trip out of the food court.

"Aren't you glad you listened to me?" I asked him.

"Are you kidding? Of course I am. We should do this again sometime," Travis replied.

"Ha, but you're going to be the mom this time. My feet still hurt from wearing those heels."

"You secretly liked it."

"You should try it sometime. Hurts like hell."

"Whatever. Let's find the others."

* * *

We found Zoe, Annabeth, Thalia and Nico inside Forever 21.

"Where have you guys been?" Zoe asked. "Percy, I texted you like fourteen times."

"Yeah, I'd rather not say where we've been," I responded.

"You missed what happened. Some lady was being chased by like four cops," she looked me dead in the eye.

"Wow, haha, that's crazy," I fidgeted. "Anyway, we're leaving, right?"

She raised a brow. "Yeah…we're leaving."

"Okay, then."

She knows. She definitely knows.

* * *

Arty dropped us off at our neighborhood. We all live fairly close to each other. Apparently so does Annabeth. Thalia gave Nico a stern look and took off for her house. Annabeth left as well. Nico started off for his house, too.

"See ya later, Nico," I called.

He didn't say anything and took off.

I turned to Zoe. "What's up with him?"

"Well, he and Thalia had some sort of private conversation back at the mall. And Nico hasn't said a word since."

"Did you happen to hear what it was about?"

"No. Thalia told me she needed to talk with Nico, then they both went to the other side of the store and I just waited for them."

"That's weird."

"Speaking of, we need to have a talk."

We began walking down the sidewalk to our houses, which were conveniently placed right across from each other.

"I know it was you," she said.

"What are you talking about?"

"You were dressed as a woman and you were the one the police was after. Am I correct?"

"Well, yeah. But I can explain."

"I really don't wanna know why you were dressed as a woman. But what I do want to know, is why you tackled Luke."

"Oh, um, I just don't like him, you know."

"Percy, you and Luke have never said a single word to each other. You don't hate him. But something else made you tackle him. And I know what it is."

"Why don't you tell me, since you're so smart?"

"See, you tackled him right when he was about to kiss Annabeth. And you did that, so that the kiss wouldn't happen. You didn't want Luke to kiss Annabeth because you were jealous."

"I'm not jealous of anyone. They can kiss all day for all I care. Plus I'm already dating Hannah, so why would I be jealous?"

"Because you like Annabeth."

"Okay, first Jason, now you. Why does everyone think I like Annabeth? I don't!"

"Yes you do, Perce. And Hannah is just a distraction that you have yourself, so that you could prove to yourself that you don't like her. But it's not working."

"Hannah's not a distraction."

"I know you inside and out. Admit it. That's why we're such good friends. But I can keep it a secret that you like her, if you want."

"Zoe, I don't know what you're trying to pull, but I don't like Annabeth. That is the one thing that I know for a fact."

"Whatever, Perce. We're doing something after school tomorrow, right?"

"Definitely."

"'Kay, bye."

We shared a quick hug and headed inside our homes. It was already Wren and Charlie's bedtime when I got inside. My mom was still at work by this time. I ate a quick dinner and went upstairs to my mom and dad's room. My father was lying fast asleep in bed, but the light was still on. I checked his breathing. Stable. I kissed his forehead and turned off the light.

I made a habit of checking up on my father every night to make sure nothing happened. See, he has serious lung cancer and he gets weaker by the days. So my mother has to work everyday to feed five mouths including her own and to pay for everything else. She doesn't mind it, though. As long as father is okay. That's our biggest concern. And it only gets worse by the days because we can't really afford chemotherapy or any other cure.

My father doesn't mind. His only goal is to see me graduate, if he lives that long. Anything after graduation would be a blessing. I glanced out my window. A crescent moon was gleaming.

I thought about what Zoe had said to me as we walked home. She did make a lot of sense. But that doesn't mean it's true. Right? Maybe it is. I don't really know. My only focus at the moment was to make it to morning. I'd make my decision then. Hopefully.

* * *

**Hey, I'm back. I usually won't take that long to update, I got sick over my break, plus I had to finish mapping up the story. I hoped you liked this, it was a bit out there but I certainly hope it's good enough. The chapters will go from school to afternoon. Like, on chapter will be about the school hours and the next one will be about the afternoon. Then it repeats. Im guessing that it'll be that way until we get to Saturday (in the story) i can't wait to write about Saturday, you guys are going to love it, hopefully. if you have any questions about anything at all, please ask. so goodbye and we'll meet again sometime soon.**

-Halley


	3. Tuesday Morning

Something felt wrong. Something felt awfully wrong about today. Despite the fact that the sun actually came out today and the temperatures would be in the record high if the week, something was off. Not to mention, I was awfully jumpy this morning.

"You're-"

The pencil I was holding flew out of my hand and I almost fell out of my chair. I glowered at the source of the sound.

"You're dragging your pencil," Annabeth noticed.

I glanced down at the large spread of paper on my desk. I was supposed to be drawing our Greek god, idioticus. I had absentmindedly dragged my pencil across his face, giving the impression that I was sketching Pinocchio, rather than the chiseled nose of idioticus.

I picked my pencil off the floor and erased the mark and proceeded to sketching.

"What? No witty comeback? No insults? What's wrong?" She asked me.

"If I actually answer your question, it would suggest that I actually care about what you have to say."

"Oh, good. You're back."

I rolled my eyes. An uncomfortable silence grew over us.

"Hey, Annabeth."

I jumped up and my pencil flew out of my hand once more.

"Shit," I groaned. I looked up at who had spoken. It was Luke. He was wearing a navy blue sling that carried his left forearm which was covered in a purple cast. Signatures written in Sharpie were scribbled all over his cast.

"Oh, hey," Annabeth responded.

"Whoa, what happened to your arm?" I interrupted.

"Yesterday some lady dived on me and I fell and landed on my arm," he said regretfully.

I covered my mouth to stifle the oncoming fit of laughter that was going to erupt from my mouth. I quickly looked away and pretended it was a cough.

"Wow, really? That's crazy. People these days, you know. Crazy," I looked down at my paper to hide my smile.

"I know."

I covered my mouth again. This was too funny.

"Are you okay?" Luke asked.

I didn't dare look at him.

"Yeah, I'm going to go sharpen my pencil," I told him.

"Your pencil isn't broken," Annabeth noted.

I forcefully pressed the tip of the pencil to my paper and watched it break off.

"Now it is," I quickly evacuated my desk. After controlling myself I returned to my desk.

"We're still on for Saturday, right?" Luke asked Annabeth.

"Definitely," Annabeth swiftly glanced at me then back at Luke. What was that about?

"Alright, see ya," He left.

"Going on a date?" I asked.

"Its not really a date," she went back to scribbling information on her paper.

"Two teens of separate sex. Going somewhere alone. Don't forget your raging hormones. You're either gonna end up getting it on or getting high."

She scoffed. "I don't do drugs."

"So you're going to be sheet spreading?"

"Sheet spreading?"

"Never mind."

"It's just a friendly get together."

"Not to Castellan. He's a douche."

"No he's not."

"Yeah, he kind of is."

"You don't know anything about him."

"Well what I do know is that he's dated every slut in this very school and now he's apparently going for the weak ones."

"Are you calling me weak?"

"Yes, but that's besides the point. Luke's a player."

"That's false. You're the player."

"Just because you find me sexy does not mean I'm a player."

"Ew, no. But how many girls have you dated?"

"Six or seven."

"And you say you're not a pl-"

"To be fair, I moved from state to state a lot."

"Yeah, okay," she said sarcastically.

"And then there's you. Who knows how many boy-toys you've had with that pretty little face of yours."

"I actually haven't…" she stopped and gazed at me.

"What?"

"You called me pretty."

"Okay, so?"

"Nothing, nevermind. Let's just…get back to work," Flushed cheeks, she went back to her information sheet. The bell rang soon after. First period was over.

We all rushed out of Mrs. Foral's classroom and towards our lockers. Nico was already at his when I got to our lockers.

"Why'd you run out on me yesterday?" I asked him.

He didn't respond.

"Are you okay?" I questioned.

Still no response. He continued gathering his supplies as if I wasn't even there.

"Nico."

He finally turned his head towards me. By the expression on his face it was apparent that he was annoyed.

"Leave me alone," he simply said.

"Is it that time of the month again?"

"Shut up and leave me the fuck alone."

"Dude, what's wrong? What did I do?"

He rolled his eyes and walked off. Not a minute later, Thalia came to her locker.

"Hey, do you know what's wrong with Nico?"

She didn't respond either.

"So I'm guessing you're still mad at me? Look, I'm sorry. Okay?"

Still nothing. She packed her books, shut her locker and left. What the hell is going on? First Thalia, now Nico? Zoe… I needed to talk to her after school. I shut my locker and headed off to algebra II.

The class was a bore. I mostly kept my head down and occasionally glanced out the window into the history room to try and make eye contact with Nico. It failed every time.

"Percy Jackson."

My head snapped upwards. "What?"

"Sample question 4. Answer it," said Mr. Brent.

"But, I didn't raise my hand."

"That doesn't mean you can't answer the question."

"Actually it kind of does. If I know the answer then I'll raise my hand. If I don't then I won't raise my hand. It's pretty simple actually. You're like 54 years old, how do you not understand that?"

"I'm 39."

"What's the difference?"

Brent rolled his eyes and picked a different student to answer the question.

Thankfully, the bell rang. I tried talking to Nico at our lockers again but he completely ignored me. As did Thalia. So I proceeded to my third period, which was health.

"Hey," Hannah greeted as I walked in.

"Hey, bae," I dumped my notebook on my desk.

"Hey we're having a party at my house on Thursday. You're coming right?"

"Of course."

"Except don't bring any of your loser friends."

I locked eyes with Thalia, who sat in the row right next to Hannah's. She kept her eyes trained on me. I looked away and responded, "Don't worry. Some of them aren't my friends anyway."

"Good."

Mrs. Locke stepped up to the front of the class.

"Welcome back students," she greeted.

"Ay, so what time is it, again?" I turned my attention back to Hannah.

"What time is what?"

"The party."

"Um, seven. But you can come at six," she winked at me.

"Very subtle," I laughed.

"Mr. Jackson," Locke called.

"What?" I responded, slightly annoyed.

"Is my teaching interrupting your conversation?"

"Yeah actually, if you could keep it down, that'd be great," I smirked.

"How about I send you to the principle's office instead?"

"Nah, I'm fine."

"Then I suggest you shut it. Anyways…" she proceeded back to her teaching.

"Locke is on her fucking period today, eh?" I whispered to Hannah. She inhaled sharply and mouthed "turn around".

I did so to find Locke glaring angrily at me with her hands on her hips.

"What did you say, Jackson?" She challenged.

"I said, 'Locke is on her fucking period today, eh?' Need a fucking hearing aid, granny?" I accepted her challenge.

The entire class turned silent. The class across the hall turned silent as well. A few students in the other class turned around and glanced into our classroom.

"Get out of my classroom. Now," she jabbed a wrinkled finger at the door.

I rolled my eyes and left the classroom. The students in the class across from me where all staring at me. I gave them a grin and waved. The teacher approached his classroom door and shut it.

Approximately a minute later, Locke came out into the hall with me.

"Follow me," she mumbled and began strolling through the hall. I followed. Our little "walk" was incredibly awkward. She didn't utter a single word throughout.

"How old are you?" I blurted.

"Shut up," she responded rather brusquely.

"Okay, jeez. Just trying to lighten the mood," I chuckled.

We entered the principle's office. Locke shot me a look of pure evil and exited the room.

"What's up, Scott?" I greeted the principle.

"It's Principle Stevens to you," he said curtly.

"What? No first name privileges?"

"You never had first name privileges, Jackson. Now sit down."

I took a seat in one of his uncomfortable chairs.

"Why are you here?" He asked me.

"Because Mrs. Locke is on her period."

"Excuse me?"

"Because I cussed at Mrs. Locke, I mean."

"And why would you do that?"

"'Cause she was being a prick," I chuckled.

"This is no laughing matter."

"Actually, I thought it was pretty funny."

"Is everything a joke to you, Jackson?"

"Sure."

"I mean, do you ever take anything seriously?"

"Not really."

"And how far has that gotten you?"

"Well so far I'm a sophomore in high school, so…yeah. It's gotten me pretty far."

"Wrong. It's gotten you in my office."

"I'm still a sophomore in high school…"

"Am I going to have to call your parents?"

"Well, my dad is practically on the verge of death and my mom has work like 24/7. So good luck with that."

"I feel sorry for you, Jackson."

"Why?"

"You have such great potential and you choose waste it like this."

"Too bad I don't care," I droned sarcastically.

"You could do great things, you know."

"It's a good thing that I value your opinion. Oh wait, I don't."

The bell rang.

"Oh well," Principle Stevens picked up his phone, dialed a number and held it to his ear.

"No one is going to pick up, dude. I already told you that," I informed.

After several seconds, I heard the answering machine play from his phone. Stevens got up and headed into the other room to leave a message.

Now I was completely alone in his office. The bell rang again. Fourth period had begun. I got up and silently made my way to the door and silently slipped out. I glanced through the window and into his office; it was still empty. So I bolted.

I raced all the way to the other side of the school to whet the gym was located. Out of breath, I burst through the gym doors. The other students were milling around doing stretches in their fencing suits.

"You're late, Jackson," Mr. Caspars boomed.

"Thanks, I didn't notice," I responded.

"Go change and put on a suit when you get back," he instructed.

I did as he said. When I got back inside, everyone was crowding around four sheets of paper that were taped to the wall. I put on my fencing suit and joined the mob to see what they were looking at. I pulled Beck out of the crowd.

"What's going on? What's everyone looking at?" I asked him.

"So basically we're going to have some sort of fencing tournament. You have to look for your name on the first sheet and see who you're going up against. That first sheet is just the preliminaries, so everyone is going to be matched up. That's about to happen in a few minutes.

The second sheet is the moderates. The people that passed the preliminaries will be matched up with other victors from the previous matches. The people that didn't pass the preliminaries will just be spectators. That's going to be tomorrow.

Then the third sheet is the semi-finals. The people that won the previous matches will be matched up. That's going to be on Thursday.

The fourth sheet is the finals. The two people that won the semi-finals will be matched fighting. And that's gonna be on Friday."

"Wow. Okay-"

"Time's up!" Caspars announced. "If you didn't get the chance to check the sheet then that's your problem. Everyone needs to make their way to the left side of the gym and sit patiently while we set up."

Everyone stampeded to the other side of the the gym. Two other instructors began marking the the fighting area with bright colored strips of tape and orange cones. Once their were finished they stood off to either side of the fighting zone.

Caspars stood at the center of the gymnasium with a single sheet of paper in hand. "It looks like we're about ready to begin. But before that, I need to set some ground rules. There will be no punching, tackling or wrestling. Doing so will result in disqualification and you will automatically become a spectator. Arm blocking and kicks are allowed.

To win a match, you must successfully disarm your opponent or get him on the ground. If we see you yanking on someone's épée, then you're gonna be disqualified. Stay within the boundaries. If you step outside the boundary line, then the match will be paused and you will have to rematch. If you step out twice, you will be disqualified. Are we clear on this?"

We nodded.

"Good," he muttered. "Now let's begin shall we? First up is Charles Beckendorf versus James Beverly."

Caspars stepped aside as the two competitors gripped their weapons and put on their head pieces. They both stepped into the match zone. Beck and Beverly got in position. Both were an equal distance from the middle. A whistle was blown and the match began.

Not even five seconds had passed and the match was over. Beck won. He had slammed the butt of his sword onto Beverly's forehead and placed a firm kick on his knee, making him lose his equilibrium and tumble to the ground. That was an easy win for Beck.

The next match was some kid named Josh and another named Davis. Most of the matches were long-winded and not very entertaining so I pretty much spaced out until I heard a familiar name.

A few matches later, Annabeth was called up. Her opponent- I, too, was in shock- was Hannah Newman. The two strode inside the boundary lines. The tension was thick. It was apparent that they were glaring at each other through their head pieces.

The whistle was blown and the match began. Annabeth lunged immediately. Her jab was intercepted by a somewhat weak parry made by Hannah. Annabeth made a swift slash at Hannah's torso. Hannah stepped back. Just as she did so, Annabeth made another quick jab. Hannah took another step back and now she was at the edge of the boundary line.

I could swear that Annabeth was grinning. To prove my theory, Annabeth lifted her leg boldly and launched it at Hannah's abdomen. The impact knocked Hannah a few inches into the air and ultimately a hard collision onto the gym floor.

The match was finished. Annabeth had won. What a prick. She obviously knew that P.E was the only time that she could embarrass Hannah, because she didn't have the guts to do it anywhere else. Now she'll never hear the end of it from Hannah's friends.

My match had taken place a few fights after Hannah's. I had to take on some scrawny kid named Grover Underwood. The fight was totally unfair if you ask me. The match ended when I stuck my foot out as he charged me. The dumbass tripped over my foot and the match was over.

The matches were over just in time for the bell. Half of us made it to the second sheet. All my friends except Hannah, had made it. Well, the people that used to be my friends.

On my way to our lunch table, I caught Thalia and Nico walking and chatting it up with Annabeth as they made their way to their own little table. Is that why they ditched me? Just to hang out with Pill Breath? Annabeth made brief eye contact with me.

I flipped her off before I looked away. That was for stealing my friends. She scrunched her eyes at me in confusion. I turned away and proceeded to my table, which now consisted of Zoe, The Stolls, Bianca, Beck and Silena. Our table would now have seven members, including me.

I headed up the line and grabbed my lunch. Zoe had saved me a spot right next to her.

"You and I are going to the mall after school. It's mandatory," I told her.

"Cool, I'll tell Thals," she said.

"No, it's just gonna to be you and me," I said.

"Are you guys still mad at each other from yesterday?"

"She is. But I actually apologized and she didn't even say anything back."

"Well you did the right thing."

"Oh, and Nico isn't talking to me either. And I think I know why."

"Tell me."

"It's just a guess, but remember yesterday when Thalia said that she needed to talk to Nico in private?"

"Yeah," Zoe nodded.

"Well whatever Thalia must've told him, made him hate me somehow."

"Okay, first of all, Thalia would never do that. But let's pretend she did. What could she possibly tell Nico to make him hate you? You two have been friends since second grade."

"I know it seems a little far-fetched, but it's one of the only possibilities. No one would randomly wake up one morning and decide not to talk to their best friend for glob knows how long."

"Okay, so what are we going to do about it?" She asked.

"So, my guess is that Thalia or Nico, but most likely Thalia, is going to tell you that she needs to talk to you privately. Say no. Because if you say yes then she's probably going to tell you the same thing she told Nico to make you dislike me."

"Perce, we're best friends. I could never dislike you."

"Nico was also my best friend and look what happened to him."

"Well yeah, but I wouldn't …"

"Look, I'm flattered, but whatever Thalia has to say must be pretty powerful-"

The lunch bell rang.

"We'll talk later, okay? Just make sure to say no to Thalia if she asks to talk to you," I reminded her.

"Gotcha," She took off.

I picked up my stuff from my locker and headed off to Mr. Alexander's class. Once inside, the bell rang and I took my seat.

"Okay," Alexander went up to the front of the class. "Today we will be conducting a few experiments. Everyone is required to wear safety goggles. Those are located on the table in the front of the classroom. And you also have to wear the white lab coats, too. Only because they look stylish for the occasion. Oh, and you will be doing this in pairs. I made a list of who you are partnered up with on the sheet that's taped to the marker board.

As you can see, there are lab stations around the room with all the stuff you're going to use. I've numbered the stations 1-14. I wrote your station number beside you and your partner's name on the sheet. Once you have paired up, put on the goggles and coats and go to your assigned station. When you get to your station you will find a sheet of paper with a chart on it. You must fill out the chart as you do the experiments. All instructions for the experiments are on the sheet of paper. Am I forgetting something? Oh, yeah, don't stand too close when you're doing experiment two," Mr. Alexander chuckled menacingly. "Go."

Chairs scraped across the linoleum as everyone scooted their chairs back and rushed to the front of the room. I stayed in my seat waiting for whoever my partner was to approach me. People started branching off in pairs and heading to their stations. I noticed that Zoe got partnered up with Thalia. Zoe and I locked eyes. She gave me a nod of understanding and walked off with Thalia.

"We're station three."

I turned my head to face the speaker. I silently groaned immediately. Do I even have to tell you who it is? How many times are we going to have to work together on stupid projects and assignments? It's sorta ridiculous.

"Whatever. Go get me some goggles," I told her.

"Um, no. Why don't you just walk up there like everyone else?"

"Fine, be a dick about it." I trudged to the front table and picked up a pair of goggles and a coat, then headed back. Pill breath was scanning the chart we had to fill out.

"What's first?" I asked her.

"Put a drop of Glycerol inside beaker number one and jot down what you observed," Annabeth recited.

I picked up the small dark blue bottle of Glycerol and squeezed a glob of it inside.

"It said to put a drop," said Annabeth.

"It also said for you to shut up."

The glob of Glycerol kept its shape as it entered the beaker filled with water. The cerulean glob dropped at a snail's pace through the water and finally piled up at the bottom of the beaker. Annabeth scribbled down some words on the chart.

"Next?" I questioned.

"Use the eye dropper to drop a few drops of water onto the pile of Magnesium powder, then heat the powder," She recited.

I did as she said.

"Wait, heat it with what?"

"This thing," she pointed at a rusty portable stove top that rested in front of us.

"Yeah, fuck that. Hold on, I've got a lighter in my pocket," I pulled out a red Bic lighter.

"Why do you have a lighter in your pocket?"

"The question you should be asking is 'why would I not have a lighter in my pocket'."

I flicked it once and out came a vibrant orange flame. I placed the root of the fire next on top of the Magnesium.

"Wait," I flicked off the lighter. I added a drop of Glycerol to the wet Magnesium powder and brought out the other ingredient that was at our table. It was a small box of powdered black crystals

"What are you doing?" Annabeth asked apprehensively. "Percy, that's Potassium Permanganate. You can't mix that with Magnesium or else-"

I dumped the whole thing in the mix.

I flicked my lighter once more. Before I could even bring the lighter to the batch of ingredients, thin wisps of smoke began to ascend from the mixture.

Annabeth took a few steps back. The smoke grew a stronger shade of grey. The powder began to vibrate. Before I could react, Annabeth gripped my hand and yanked me back. The powder exploded, tossing purple sparks and orange spurts of fire around in a yard-long radius. A dark grey mushroom cloud took form on our desk. Meanwhile, Annabeth and I were a couple feet away from the catastrophe, holding hands and watching in awe.

We both glanced at each other at the same time then quickly let go of each other's hands. Mr. Alexander rushed to the scene.

"What in the world happened here?" He took off his glasses and examined the mess of black soot and lingering smoke.

"Obviously, something exploded," I responded.

"Well, I can see that, but how?" He replied in frustration.

"Um, well, Annabeth and I were filling out the chart and then this kid comes up out of nowhere," I lied. "And starts mixing up all our powders and stuff and then they caught fire and exploded."

"Hmm, yes of course. Magnesium and Potassium Permanganate should not be mixed together."

"That's what we told him, sir."

"And did you happen to recognize who did this?"

I looked around the classroom and pointed at a random kid. "That guy."

"Grover? Mr. Underwood, you are in so much trouble!"

"But- I," The Grover kid stammered.

The bell rang.

"Well, see ya," I blurted and raced out of the classroom. I made my way to my sixth hour, which was FCS with Mrs. Willows. She was leaning on the door frame when I got to class.

"You and Chase are no longer in this class," She halted me.

"Why?"

"Because of the incident that happened yesterday."

"You're kicking me out because of one incident?"

"This isn't your first. I'm kicking you out for burning my pans, chucking cookies across the room, putting Mr. Underwood's shirt in the oven, cramming cookies in my laptop's CD drive, putting syrup in the toaster, etcetera etcetera."

"Oh, I remember those. I still can't believe how many cookies could fit into your laptop."

"Anyways, your next elective is Debate with Mr. Howard."

"Debate? What room is that?"

"307."

With a groan, I retreated back down the hall and entered room 307. I found that Annabeth had gotten here before me. She sat patiently at one of the guest chairs, while a bunch of nerds dressed in sweater vests and ties debated in the center of the room. A balding man dressed in the same attire as the students in the center of the room, came out from behind hid laptop and greeted us.

"Now, let me explain the process of debating," He began.

I have to sit through this and two more periods. Kill me now.

* * *

**Questions:**

_**Bookhugs: Oh my gosh! I was laughing hysterically at this, my mom though I was having an attack. But also Percy seems a bit more rude and just overall not like he is portrayed in most things. I don't know if you're making him more like an actual teenager, or it just passed by, but just a thought.**_

**Yeah, in my first draft, he was a bit nicer, but when i read over it, it kind of bored me. So i thought that making him more like this would be a bit less of a snore. But making him rude and cheeky was kind of difficult, but its worth it in the end because i need a little bit of character development from him. But you already know that its OOC, so**

_**Percabethshipper: amazingly amazing please write more! and I read your bio...why are you depressed? ok byeee and PLEASE WRITE MORE**_

**Thank you and i will most definitely continue writing. As for your question, i really dislike talking about it, but if enough people want to know then i might tell you guys. But as for now, its a no. Sorry**

**Its been a long while, i know, im sorry. But im gonna have to learn to ease my way into a writing schedule instead of updating randomly. But i will try to decrease the time between my updates. This is it for now. See you next time. Bye -Halley**


	4. Tuesday Afternoon

Zoe was waiting for me by the front doors.

"Hey, there you are. We're going to have to walk all the way home and then Arty will pick us up from there to the mall," she explained.

"You wanna use the shortcut?" I asked her with a grin.

"Oh my gods, I forgot all about that! Yes, let's go!"

Together we raced out of the school and over to the the dug in stream that cut through the ground. The stream was a ways away from the school.

"Hey, didn't we have like a rope swing or a bridge around here?" I looked around for any signs.

Right across from the river was a mildly thick forest. On the other side of that forest was our houses. But we needed a way to cross the stream. It was too wide to jump over. To fast to swim in. And too deep to wade in.

"There!" Zoe pointed at a long tree limb that arched above the river. Tied to it was a thick, frayed rope with a large knot at the end of it. The only problem was that the rope was hanging almost halfway above the river. That meant that we had to jump to get to it, then swing the rest of the way across the stream.

But not just a little jump. We had to make a huge leap.

"Zoe, we're going to have to jump to it." I informed.

"And if you miss the jump?" She asked.

"You drown."

"Sounds like fun," she gulped.

"I'll go first then swing back to you so it's less of a jump for you."

I backed up a few feet to get a running start. Once I had gained the distance I sped towards the stream. Once I reached the edge, I launched myself into the air and successfully latched my hands on the rope. I swung to the other side, then over to Zoe's side. The rope swung back to the other side and I jumped off, landing safely on the dry leaves and underbrush.

The rope swung back to Zoe. She took the chance and jumped for the rope. She made it on and to the other side safely, as well.

"That was easier than I thought," she said.

"C'mon." Together we ventured into the woods.

After ten minutes, we came out on the other side of the forest, right by Nico's neighbor's house. We raced down the street towards our houses. Arty had not arrived yet when we got there. So we sat on the curb right in front of my house.

"Perseus Jackson, you get in here." A voice called from behind us.

I turned around to see my mother standing in the doorway of the front door with her hands on her hips.

"I'll be right back," I whispered to Zoe.

"Don't stay too long," she whispered back. "I get bored."

I made my way inside my house. My mother was waiting in the kitchen.

"Yeah?" I asked.

"I just got a phone call from your principle, Mr. Stevens. Care to explain?"

"Didn't he already explain it to you on the phone?"

"Percy, I'm being serious. This is the ninth time he's called us all year. Why would you say that to your health teacher?"

"Ooh, Percy's in trouble," Charlie sang as he walked the kitchen.

"Leave, Charlie," My mom commanded.

"Yeah, Charlie, shut up and get out."

"Percy," my mom warned.

"I'm just saying," I defended.

"Can I at least watch?" Charlie asked.

"No, get lost," I told him.

"Percy, don't talk to your brother like that. Charlie, you can stay," my mom ordered.

Charlie made a face and stuck his tongue out at me.

"Why did you even have a second child?" I asked my mother.

"We're not talking about that right now. We're talking about you. You're grounded. No T.V or computer for a week. You're going to stay in your room for the rest of the week. You're only allowed out for meals, school and to go to the bathroom."

"What?! That's so unfair!"

"That's two weeks."

"Mom!"

"Do you want to make it three?"

"No."

"Then go to your room."

I rolled my eyes and left the kitchen.

"Have fun, loser!" Charlie called.

"Say that one more time and see what happens, retard," I called back.

"Mom, Percy just called me a retard."

"Percy, go to your room."

"I'm going, jeez."

I trudged upstairs to my room and slammed the door loudly when I entered.

I took out my phone and went to my messages.

'Cant go anywhere. I'm grounded', I texted Zoe.

'What did you do this time?' She replied.

'It was because Stevens told my mom about what happened in third hour.'

'What did happen in third hour?'

'I'll tell you later.'

'Just go apologize to your mom and maybe she'll let you out.'

'No, that's weak.'

'Then I guess I'm going home.'

'No, wait. Come to my backyard. Quickly.'

'Why?'

'Just do it.'

Seconds later, I checked my bedroom window. She was waiting there on the ground with a puzzled expression.

I drew back the curtains, lifted the blinds and opened my window. I then climbed out of the window and planted my feet on the lower roof.

"Percy, don't do this," Zoe warned.

"You know you want me to," I replied.

"Well, yeah, but I don't want you to get in more trouble."

"It's worth it," I slid down the roof and let my legs fall off as I gripped the edge of the roof. I let go and landed gently on the soft grass.

"We can't go to the mall because I already texted Arty that you couldn't make it," she informed me.

"You couldn't have told me that before I broke out of my own house?"

"It's worth it," she mocked.

"Shut up," I grinned.

"We need to get out of your backyard before she finds us."

"Okay, but we can't go out the front or she'll see us."

"Then we'll jump the fence."

"Let's go."

One after the other, we climbed the fence that bordered my backyard and the forest. We ran deep inside the woods. The tall trees blocked most of the sun out.

"Hey, does this look familiar to you?" Zoe asked.

"No, it's just a bunch of trees."

"Not only. Don't you remember? We used to come here when we were ten. It was like our secret hideout."

"Whoa. Yeah, I remember this. Look, there's the fort we made." I pointed at a haphazardly built tree house that was lodged between three trees.

"Mount Olympus."

"What?" I questioned.

"That's what we named it."

"That's a dumb name."

"Hey, you picked it."

"What was I thinking?"

"Come on, let's go inside!" She raced to the tree house. We had to climb up a ladder to get inside.

"Holy crap, it's just like I remember it," I scanned the room. There were pieces of paper scattered across the room. A few clothes. A bunch of arm-length sticks. Old books. Jars of dead bugs and plants. Just like I remember. Stapled to the wall was an old loose leaf paper with writing on it.

I went up close to get a better view.

It read, "I plege allegence to the flag of Mount Olympus, and to the forest for which it stands, one fort under God, individable, with libertty and justise for all.

Signed by King Percy and Queen Zoe."

"Percy, come see this," Zoe called.

She had found our old journal.

"Read the first entry," she instructed.

It read, "We have finished building Mount Olympus. Today is a great day. Finally we will unite all the creatures of the woods to defend our castel-catsle-however you spell it. And after every evil being is destroyed, we will rule the woods. August 14, 2008. Jurnal entry number one."

Zoe flipped through the pages. "Every page has a journal entry. It talks about how the fort was constantly attacked by giants, hellhounds, trolls, harpies and stuff."

"Come on, let's do something," I told her.

"Like what?"

"I don't know, make a fire, chase some bears, whatever. Come on."

"Let's hold off on the bears and just make a fire," she said.

We left the safety of Mount Olympus and picked a spot a few meters away to have our fire. Zoe got some small logs to sit on, while I gathered sticks. I took out my lighter and lit the sticks.

A bright orange flame augmented slowly through the bundles of brush and sticks.

"I saw you and Annabeth holding hands in Science," Zoe said with a grin.

"It wasn't like that. She was pulling me back so that the powder wouldn't blow up in my face," I retorted.

"Oooh, so she's protective."

"That's not what I meant."

"It's what you wanted me to think, though."

"I've already told you, there's nothing going on between Annabeth and I. I'm already dating Hannah."

"You don't even hang out with her."

"I just haven't had the chance."

"You could've hung out with her today."

"No, you're more important."

"Thanks, I like that you've got your priorities straight."

"Haha, whatever."

"Do you really think Thalia and Nico are going to try and make me hate you?"

"Maybe. We have to wait and see."

"I promise you I won't let them."

"Don't promise that."

"No, I'm serious. I 'Mount Olympus' promise you.

"You do know that that's the biggest promise you can make," I gave a smile.

"I know," she smiled right back.

"Then it's sealed."

"Do wanna get out of here," she questioned.

"Yeah, it's getting dark," I got up and extinguished the small flame. "Shall we go, my Queen?"

"Indeed we shall, my King."

Together we left the woods and I walked her to her house.

"Don't forget," I told her.

She leaned on the doorframe. "I won't. See you."

"Bye."

I began to walk to my house, until a blue BMW blocked my path. Jason's BMW. Thalia and Nico got out of the car, shoved past me and approached Zoe's door. They knocked. Zoe answered the door. Thalia said something inaudible. Zoe let them in and shut the door.

The front window of Jason's car rolled down.

"Go home, Percy," said Jason.

I glared at him. Reluctantly, I crossed the road and entered my house. Fortunately, my mom was at work. Charlie and Wren were watching T.V.

I skipped dinner and went straight to bed.

She's not going to let them.

She said so herself.

There's nothing to worry about, right?

* * *

**Short chapter= Quick update**

**Questions**

**Wolf: ****_Percy was wrong the lower your weight in wrestling the more skill you require to accually succeed in a match_**

**But they were fencing not wrestling**

**ME: ****_Awesome! Awesome! Awesome!  
But, your summary says they're gonna be locked alone, Percy and Annabeth? But reading your story, it's totally different._**

**Thanks and we just haven't got there yet. Remember Zoe's forecast in the first chapter during 8th period? The storm will arrive over the weekend, she said. And my summary says that they get trapped bc of a storm. So tie those together. We'll get there soon :)**

**Other**

**BlackWolfSpirit1: Thank you, it looks like you're the first.**

**Annabeth AKA Mrs. Jackson: Thank you and yes, you're going to see a lot of that character adjustment very soon. This chapter was kind of for you guys to see a small amount of Percy's friendlier side. Also, most of your questions will be answered during the storm.**

**You guys are lovely. I very much appreciate all the follows, favorites and reviews. Chapter five will be out soon. Thank you and goodbye- Halley**

**P.S. What the heck is a beta? **


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